A BLUETOOTH Low Energy (BLE) device includes a BLUETOOTH transceiver, a memory storing a computer program, and a processor configured to execute the computer program. The computer program is configured to select a primary advertising channel as a target channel for transmission of a BLE advertising packet belonging to a BLE advertising event, and listen to the selected channel for a channel assessment time. Listening to the selected channel includes determining whether the selected channel is busy or idle. The computer program is further configured to transmit the BLE advertising packet on the selected channel when it is determined that the selected channel is idle during the channel assessment time.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A BLUETOOTH Low Energy (BLE) device, comprising: a BLUETOOTH transceiver; a memory storing a computer program; and a processor configured to execute the computer program, wherein the computer program is configured to: select a primary advertising channel as a target channel for transmission of a first BLE advertising packet belonging to a BLE advertising event; listen to the selected channel for a channel assessment time, wherein listening to the selected channel comprises determining whether the selected channel is busy or idle; and transmit the first BLE advertising packet on the selected channel when it is determined that the selected channel is idle during the channel assessment time.
2. The BLE device of claim 1 , wherein the computer program is configured to: delay transmitting the first BLE advertising packet on the selected channel when it is determined that the selected channel is busy during the channel assessment time.
3. The BLE device of claim 2 , wherein the computer program is configured to delay transmitting the first BLE advertising packet by: setting a back-off time; starting a timer when the selected channel becomes idle after the channel assessment time; and transmitting the first BLE advertising packet on the selected channel when a value of the timer is equal to or greater than the back-off time.
4. The BLE device of claim 1 , wherein the computer program is configured to: determine that the selected channel is busy when a preamble or an access address of a BLE advertising packet transmitted by another BLE device is detected on the selected channel.
5. The BLE device of claim 1 , wherein the primary advertising channel is channel 37, channel 38, or channel 39 included in a 2.4 GHz Industrial Scientific and Medical (ISM) radio band.
6. The BLE device of claim 1 , wherein the computer program is configured to: select a time advDelay, wherein advDelay is a randomly or pseudo-randomly generated delay time, and advDelay is independently randomly or pseudo-randomly generated for each of a plurality of BLE advertising events including the BLE advertising event; and begin the BLE advertising event at a time T_advEvent after a starting time of transmission of a previous BLE advertising event, wherein T_advEvent=advInterval+advDelay, and advInterval is a BLE advertising interval used by the BLE device for all advertising events belonging to an advertising data set transmitted by the BLE device.
7. The BLE device of claim 1 , wherein the computer program is configured to: determine that the selected channel is busy when an amount of power detected by the BLUETOOTH transceiver exceeds a predefined threshold.
8. A method of transmitting BLUETOOTH Low Energy (BLE) advertising data, comprising: selecting, by a BLE device, a primary advertising channel as a target channel for transmission of a first BLE advertising packet belonging to a BLE advertising event; listening, by the BLE device, to the selected channel for a channel assessment time, wherein listening to the selected channel comprises determining whether the selected channel is busy or idle; and transmitting, by the BLE device, the first BLE advertising packet on the selected channel when it is determined that the selected channel is idle during the channel assessment time.
9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising: delaying transmitting the first BLE advertising packet on the selected channel when it is determined that the selected channel is busy during the channel assessment time.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein delaying transmitting the first BLE advertising packet comprises: setting a back-off time; starting a timer when the selected channel becomes idle after the channel assessment time; and transmitting the first BLE advertising packet on the selected channel when a value of the timer is equal to or greater than the back-off time.
11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising: pausing the timer each time the selected channel becomes busy; and resuming the timer each time the selected channel becomes idle.
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the first BLE advertising packet is not transmitted on the selected channel when the value of the timer is less than the back-off time and when an advertising event window is closed.
13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the back-off time is a randomly or pseudo-randomly generated number.
14. The method of claim 8 , wherein the selected channel is determined to be busy when a preamble or an access address of a BLE advertising packet transmitted by another BLE device is detected on the selected channel.
15. The method of claim 14 , wherein a minimum duration of the channel assessment time is equal to a sum of a maximum length of the BLE advertising packet transmitted by the another BLE device, a length of the preamble of the BLE advertising packet transmitted by the another BLE device, and a length of the access address of the BLE advertising packet transmitted by the another BLE device.
16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the minimum duration of the channel assessment time is equal to about 416 μs or about 1,854 μs.
17. The method of claim 8 , wherein the primary advertising channel is channel 37, channel 38, or channel 39 included in a 2.4 GHz Industrial Scientific and Medical (ISM) radio band.
18. The method of claim 8 , wherein the BLE advertising event begins at a time T_advEvent after a starting time of transmission of a previous BLE advertising event, wherein T_advEvent=advInterval+advDelay, wherein advInterval is a BLE advertising interval used by the BLE device for all advertising events belonging to an advertising data set transmitted by the BLE device, wherein advDelay is a randomly or pseudo-randomly generated delay time selected by the BLE device, and advDelay is independently randomly or pseudo-randomly generated for each of a plurality of BLE advertising events including the BLE advertising event.
19. The method of claim 18 , wherein advInterval is between about 20 ms and about 10,485.759375 seconds, and advDelay is between about 0 ms and about 10 ms.
20. The method of claim 8 , further comprising: detecting, by the BLE device, an amount of power received by a BLUETOOTH transceiver of the BLE device; and determining that the selected channel is busy when the detected amount of power exceeds a predefined threshold.
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January 16, 2019
October 20, 2020
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